The recent tragic deaths of car crash victims Katherine Hoang along with her unborn twins and their teenage driver has renewed calls by the Australian Christian Lobby for the law to recognise the death of unborn children as separate criminal offences.

This comes after the driver who caused the crash was charged for the death of the two women, but separate offences for the death of the twins were not laid.

“It is nonsense that the tragic deaths of these two babies are not recognised as separate offences under New South Wales law,” said ACL’s NSW director Kieren Jackson.

“There is no question that the law should be changed to establish a separate offence for conduct causing serious harm to or the death of a child in the womb. ACL calls on all members of the NSW Parliament to fix this gap in the law,” Jackson said.

A bill addressing this issue was introduced by Fred Nile MLC in March last year and is yet to be debated. The bill is named in honour of Zoe Donegan who was stillborn after her mother Brodie, then 36 weeks pregnant, was hit by a car on Christmas day 2009.